affair.^306
“A horned toad, known as katak bertandok, but not the common one of that
name (Megalophrys nasuta, Gunther), has a very bad reputation with the
Malays. It is said to live in the jungle on the hills, and wherever it takes up its
abode all the trees and plants around wither and die. So poisonous is it, that it is
dangerous even to approach it, and to touch or be bitten by it is certain death.
“The bite of the common toad (Bufo melanostictus, Cantor) is also said to prove
fatal. That toads have no teeth is an anatomical detail that does not seem to be
thought worthy of being taken into account.
“The supposed venomous properties of this useful and harmless tribe have a
world-wide range. In Shakespeare many allusions to it are made; one of them,
which mentions the habit of hibernation possessed by those species which
inhabit the colder parts of the earth, says—
‘In the poison’d entrails throw,
Toad, that under coldest stone
Days and nights hast thirty-one,
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.’“In another, reference is made to the toad-stone, which seems to be represented
in Malayan tradition by the pearl carried in the bodies of the hamadryad, the
cobra, and the bungarus, the three most deadly snakes of the Peninsula:—
‘Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in its head.’“There is some foundation of fact for the popular belief, as toads secrete an acrid
fluid from the skin, which appears to defend them from the attacks of
carnivorous animals.”^307
It may not be out of place to give here a Malay tradition about a species of snail:
—